Is Tyrell Goulbourne really more than just another Zac Rinaldo?

Last week, Tyrell Goulbourne took a slap shot and broke a pane of glass.

In the mundane week full of dull drills and nameless players that is summer development camp, that shattering shot made Goulbourne, a 2013 third round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, stand out of the crowd.

Like clockwork, the stories about to file out of the Skate Zone … all about how Goulbourne wants to shed the goon label, and how he’s more than just the Next Zac Rinaldo. God, this all sounds so familiar.

Here’s Rinaldo at development camp in 2011:

“Maybe show off my skills a little more (this year) because I haven’t really been doing that at all,” Rinaldo said earlier this summer at Developmental Camp. “They’re there; I just really haven’t brought them out.”

…

“It sucks, it really sucks (when people view you as only a fighter), every one busts my balls all the time,” Rinaldo said. “Put me on the first or second line for a couple games you’ll see a different player.”

And here Goulbourne at development camp in 2015:

“Not really,” he said. “There’s always gonna be people that label you as that. I don’t label myself as a goon. I’m a two-way forward and I like to play that way. If people want to call me that, so be it.”

Two players known for their physical play enter Flyers camp and try to sell the idea that they’re more than just physical players, more than just goons. The parallels are stunning, and the way the local media has described Goulbourne this week has fascinated me.

Here’s the Courier Post talking about how he “has more skill” than Rinaldo:

Goulbourne was taken in the third round by Philadelphia, though pundits believed he would have been available much later in the draft.

The two play quite different games. Leier has excellent hands, good speed and notched 31 points in 73 games for the Phantoms last year.

Goulbourne had 22 goals last year in his over-age season with the Kelowna (British Columbia) Rockets in the Western Hockey League. He’s better known for his 461 penalty minutes in 275 WHL games.

Because of his size (6-foot and 200 pounds) and his time spent in the sin bin, the 21-year-old is often compared to former Flyer Zac Rinaldo, even though he’s a little bigger and has more skill.

And here’s CSN saying how he “has a lot more upside” than Rinaldo:

The thing is, Goulbourne brings offensive numbers to his game. He’s improved offensively every year in junior. He has a lot more upside than Rinaldo.

While Rinaldo played sparingly on the penalty kill, Goulbourne worked the Rockets’ top penalty kill unit all season in Kelowna and saw time on the second power-play unit as well.

We can say he has more skill and that’s great and everything, but does it stack up at all with the facts? Let’s compare the junior careers of Rinaldo and Goulbourne.

Their junior stats are very similar. In this case, the fact that Rinaldo had so many extra penalty minutes and was comparable in points probably means he was doing more offensively with less ice time, although it’s obviously not good that he had so many PIM.

But to look at their careers and conclude that Goulbourne has more skill … that feels like a big stretch, at least if you’re going to say it unequivocally.

In their age 19 junior seasons, Goulbourne had a better year, yes. But Rinaldo was a year ahead of Goulbourne jumping to the pro game, which — regardless of what you think of Rinaldo, and I certainly don’t think much of him — is worth something. And do we think Goulbourne could make the Flyers roster by 2016-17? Probably not.

In any event, chances we’re talking about an actual skill player here seem slim. Maybe his penalty numbers aren’t as extreme as Rinaldo’s, but 461 penalty minutes in 275 total WHL games is still absolutely insane. And he’s still behind where Rinaldo was at this same point in his career in terms of skill.

At best, it’s wait and see with this comparison. At worst … yeah, probably just another Rinaldo.